Bank Charges Success Stories II

p.hilditch

Bank: LloydsTSB
Amount Reclaimed: £1550
Amount they paid: £1550
The story: Went to court and settled before action taken by the court, many thanks,
Paul Hilditch
:beer:

yebba

Bank: Abbey
Amount Reclaimed: £734.10
Amount then Paid: £744.45

Story:

I started by requesting bank statements for the previous 6 years 27 December 2006 and followed this up with all the letter templates available on Moneysavingexpert.com. Finally I was given a date to attend Court, 25 July 2007 (next Wednesday) as Abbey said they would defend, but Thursday, 18 July, I received a letter from Abbey saying 'In view of the cost to Abbey National PLC of preparing its defence and arranging representation and without admission of any liability, Abbey National Plc has determined, in this instance, to settle your claim in full. Payment is in full and final settlement of your claim.'

I am very grateful for all the advice given - good luck to everybody else!:beer:

Leah_ST

Bank: Natwest
Amount reclaimed: £1083
Amount the paid: £1083

Story:

After watching GMTV and listening to Martin I thought why not try to reclaim my bank charges all they can do is say no. So I sent the initial letter to request my bank statements and they sent me a letter back (within the period I'd asked them to) saying they needed £5 to be able to do this. So I sent another letter with a postal order and a further 14 days to reply. They sent me my statements within 14 days and the day I got them I worked out all my charges and sent the second letter the next day. A week after sending the letter they wrote to me and advised they were investigating my claim and I would hear from them in 6-8 weeks. On 16th July I got a letter with the offer to re-pay all my charges which I have signed and sent back. All it took was two letters and 2 1/2 months of being patient.

Does anyone know how long they roughly take to put the charges back into the bank once you've accepted?

Geroid

Bank. Ulster Bank
Amount Claimed.£1486.09
Amount Paid. £1486.09

Sent Martins template letter off to Ulster Bank asking for statements for the last six years and received these within 28 days. Calculated my charges at£1486.09.Sent template letter 10 days ago requesting that they refund all charges.Received a letter this morning from Ulster bank saying charges were fair but as a gesture of goodwill etc they would pay £1486.09 to my account.So Martin i would just like to say thanks 1486 times

arcadian_dream

Bank: Lloyds TSB
Amount Reclaimed: £867.36 (£831.08 + interest of £36.28)
Amount they paid: £949.26
The story:
I sent off the appropriate letters and ended up entering the court process. I never got to actual court, as today I have received a letter from Lloyd's solicitors offering me a "goodwill gesture" of £949.26. Amazingly, that is more than I asked for. Their sum includes my original amount, my interest, my court fee of £80 plus another £1.90 they've added on.

Many thanks to Martin Lewis, the guidelines you set out on your website have proved to be brilliant.

:money:Brad.

hvr1

Bank: Capitol One Credit Card
Amount Claimed: £278.00
Amount Received: £120.00

28/06/07 asked for statements
09/07/07 statements recvd
12/07/07 sent 1st letter asking for £278.00 plus interest of £93.38
19/07/07 received reply offering me difference between £20.00 & new level of charges set by OFT (which is £12.00) making the difference £110.00, plus an additional £10.00 as an acknowledment of interest I may have incurred. (obviously this is a "one-off goodwill gesture" and not accepting any liability as their fees are fair blah, blah, blah).

I am quite pleased with the result, would have loved to have got the full amount back, but knew that was unlikely due to OFT ruling.

VERY VERY QUICK & EASY .

They are crediting my account with the money rather than sending a cheque, but that is no problem as I am trying to clear it off asap & this will only help speed things up.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted posts on all the forums, it truly inspires you to take on the BIG BAD BANKS and you dont feel like you are alone - THANK YOU :A

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TO DATE:
RBOS: Won £3760.00
Nationwide: Won £731.18
Capitol One: Won £120.00
Barclaycard: Won £392.00

STILL WAITING:
RBOS: Claim: £2238.00

AWAITING STATEMENTS:
Cyldesdale Financial Services
HSBC
Morgan Stanley (aka Goldfish) credit card
Natwest Credit Card


What am I going to do when I run out of banks??? I'm getting addicted to this:D

sfdgi

Lloyds TSB Success
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Bank: Lloyds TSB<O:p</O:p
Amount claimed: £9,952.02 (including £1,372.03 interest and £570.00 court costs)<O:p</O:p
Amount paid: £8,663 (including interest and court costs – this was actually a full settlement, as explained below)

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This claim relates to the combined total of 2 claims I have had against LloydsTSB, for charges they levied against 2 current accounts I have with them, over a 6 year period. As you will see below I did not follow each step precisely in accordance with the advice. I got there in the end, but if I had acted exactly in accordance with the advice, I may have got there sooner.
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Chronology:
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20/12/06 Wrote to local branch asking for 6 years of copy statements. Received no reply at all. I therefore calculated an estimated amount of charges over a 6 year period, by adding the charges I could find on the 4 ½ years worth of statement then adding a pro rata estimate for the period I was without statements.<O:p</O:p
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22/01/07 I wrote a further letter to the bank, which I delivered to my local branch. This explained the reasons why I thought the charges were unfair and unlawful and requested the total estimated amount I had calculated be refunded. I gave them 14 days to respond or court action would be taken without further notice.<O:p</O:p
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02/02/07 Received reply from Debbie Gilbert at the Andover Recovery Centre (dated 26/01/07). Apparent standard reply (sorry I am unhappy; have to charge for services; open about what the charges are; want to help customers in difficulty; charging system fair; can’t agree to cancel charges; can refer case to Financial Ombudsman; etc).<O:p</O:p
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19/03/07 Commenced claims through MCOL. Claims issued 19/03/07, bank had until 07/04/07 to reply. Cost £570.00.<O:p</O:p
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30/03/07 Bank filed Acknowledgement of Service on 28/03/07 and 30/03/07, thereby giving them 28 days from the date of service to file a defence.<O:p</O:p
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11/04/07 Bank filed Notice of Defence, must complete Allocation Questionnaire by 08/05/07. (It transpires bank did not submit their AQ’s on time, without any penalty to them. When I quries this with the court to see if I could ask for a win by default judgement I was told know and the court merely extended the time given to submit the AQ).<O:p</O:p
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12/04/07 Notified that my claims had been transferred to my local County Court.<O:p</O:p
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04/05/07 Submitted my AQ’s to local court, had to pay further £200.00.<O:p</O:p
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16/05/07 Letter from bank solicitors. Without prejudice or admission of liability, bank are minded to enter into settlement negotiations. However, discrepancy between what I am claiming and what bank records show. Asked me to list all charges claimed, including date, what charge for and how interest calculated.<O:p</O:p
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22/05/07 Sent reply to queries raised by solicitors, including the calculations used to arrive at the estimated part of the claim. I pointed out that if the bank calculated the actual charges for the estimated period to be either higher or lower then naturally I would amend my claim accordingly. I sent this by fax and recorded delivery.<O:p</O:p
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24/05/07 Rang solicitor, asked what present position was in view of my reply. Told someone would ring me later that day. Nothing heard.<O:p</O:p
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25/05/07 Rang again, told file not located, they would ring me as soon as they find file. Later that day received call from solicitors confirming they found my file, but my reply to their letter was not present. I was asked to refax it which I did and solicitors called back later to confirm receipt.<O:p</O:p
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20/06/07 Still nothing more heard from bank or solicitors, rang solicitors and left message for someone to ring me and explain current position.<O:p</O:p
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26/06/07 Received call from solicitors. They had calculated the actual charges for the period I was without statements and established it was lower than the estimated amount I had calculated. They were prepared to settle in full (6 years charges + interest + court costs = £8,663.00), albeit this was lower than I had claimed because my estimate turned out to be too high. I was told a formal settlement offer would be sent to me by post and when I had signed and returned that, the money would be deposited in my accounts.<O:p</O:p
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09/07/07 I had still received nothing from solicitors so rang them. Was told I should have received the offer by my, they would have to request my file to re-issue the offer.<O:p</O:p
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13/07/07 Still nothing heard. Rang them back to be told requested files normally take 72 hours to arrive but they still did not have mine.<O:p</O:p
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20/07/07 Still nothing heard. Rang them back. They came across as very embarrassed and apologetic. I was told my case had been referred to a Team Leader who was going to take personal responsibility for expediting the matter. During that evening I checked my accounts online, as I had done regularly during this process, just in case as has happened to some people the money just magically appeared but alas it was not there.<O:p</O:p
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21/07/07 I checked my balance again this morning and discovered the full amount offered by telephone had been credited. I have still not received anything in writing from them in relation to this settlement.<O:p</O:p
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I am not proud of the huge amount I have claimed but I am proud that I have succeeded in reclaiming it. The charges levied against me were initially due to my carelessness with my personal finances. However, the level of these charges only compounded the problems I already had and caused my finances to continue to spiral to worsening levels – a classic catch 22 situation. One month recently, the bank debited £490.00 charges to my accounts, how can they ever justify that or argue its fairness.<O:p</O:p
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My advice to any would be claimants or those part way through the process is to firstly follow the advice on this site to the letter, stick to all deadlines you set and do not give up hope during what can be a lengthy frustrating process. The founders of and contributors to this website and other similar ones are helping thousands of people to positively change their lives; for that – THANK YOU.<O:p</O:p

jacquai

Halifax success story 21st July 2007

Amount claimed £450
Amount repaid £600

I wrote to the Halifax at the beginning of May using the letter format on this website claiming back £450 of bank charges on my son's account. I had a reply straight away from the Halifax saying the charges were justified and there would be no refund. I sent the follow up letter saying this was not a satisfactory reply and would be taking court action. However, I worried that I was doing this on my son's behalf and didn't want him to face appearing court if the matter went any further. So I took Martin's advice and decided to write to the ombudsman. However, before the eight weeks were up (that you have to leave before your first letter and approaching the ombudsman) my son has received a letter from the Halifax saying that they are going to repay all charges totalling £600 as a good will gesture which was even more than we had asked! A big THANK YOU Martin- I have also just taken out a new mortgage armed with all the info from this website too!

basson

Amount Calimed £1278.99
Amount Won £1278.99 plus £120 court fees

It took nearly five months to the day from my first letter requesting my statements, to actually receiving the money in my account, but I would like to thank both Martin and those at the CAG website for giving me the information I needed to feel confident enough to reclaim what was mine.

duke07

Bank:Ulster BankAmount Claimed: £1953.00Amount awarded: £1635.00Got my statements, followed all of martins letters, bank said NoTwice, I went on holiday and on my return decided to go to small claims court but before I could even fill the forms in a letter of offer arrived and I have accepted. Thanks a million Martin will drink your health tonight !!!!Note to anyone thinking of claiming against their bank. JUST DO IT!!!I'm usually a coward at things like this this, but it worked good luck.
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